Qianlabeo striatus, a new genus and species of Labeoninae from Guizhou

Province, China (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)

E Zhang* & Yi-Yu ChenDepartment of Ichthyology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province,

P.R. China(*Author for correspondence: Tel.: +86-27-87647725, Fax: +86-27-87875132, E-mail: zhange@ihb.ac.cn)

Received 26 April 2004; in revised form 28 May 2004; accepted 17 June 2004

Key words: Cyprinidae, Labeoninae, taxonomy, China

Abstract

Qianlabeo striatus gen. et sp. nov. is described from a stream tributary to the Beipan Jiang of the upper ZhuJiang (Pearl River) drainage in Matou, Anshun County, Guizhou Province, China. This monotypic genus ismainly characterized by its oromadibular morphology, namely an upper lip only present in and fully adnateto the side of the upper jaw, not covered by the pendulous rostral fold; the median portion of the upper jawlacking an upper lip but bearing a thin, flexible and cornified cutting edge that is fully covered by thependulous rostral fold; a postlabial groove prolonged, extended anteromedially close to the anteromostpoint of the midline of the lower lip but not to meet with its counterpart. The type species of this genus,Q. striatus has a longitudinal dark stripe along the side of the body.

Introduction

The Labeoninae as defined by Chen et al. (1984)comprise a large number of freshwater cyprinidfishes widely distributed in the tropical Africa andAsia. Most of these fishes are adapted to inhabit-ing rapid waters of rivers. They exhibit a highdegree of modification in the oromandibularstructures that is not shared by other cyprinidfishes. Twenty genera were reported from China(Zhang et al., 2000). Among them, thirteen werereferred to the ‘Labeine cyprinids’, a convenientinformal name for a monophyletic lineage that wasdefined by the presence of a vomero-palatine or-gan (Reid, 1982, 1985). However, the species as-signed to the ‘Labeine cyprinids’ of Reid (1982,1985) and Labeoninae of Chen et al. (1984) wereplaced by Rainboth (1991) in the tribe Labeoniniof the subfamily Cyprininae. Twenty-six genera ofthe Labeonini were recognized from Southeast andEast Asia and they were conventionally dividedinto two subtribes, viz. Labeones (= Labeonina)

and Garrae (= Garrina) (Rainboth, 1991, 1996).For convenience of description and comparison,the nomenclature is adopted herein that the sub-family rank Labeoninae is retained for those fishespreviously placed by Reid (1982, 1985) in the‘Labeine cyprinids’ or by Rainboth (1991) in theLabeonini and that it can be grouped into twotribes, i.e. Labeonini (which is further subdividedinto two subtribes: Labeonina and Banganina) andGarrini (see the discussion section). It is estimatedthat the Labeoninae include about twenty-sevengenera and more than 300 species, which areroughly 15–20% of the total cyprinid fishes aroundthe world (Reid, 1982).

China falls within the easternmost extent of theknown distribution of the Labeoninae. The com-position of this subfamily tends to be sparser infish species but more diverse at the generic level.Fifty-eight currently recognized species are scat-tered among 20 genera (Table 1). There are totally

Hydrobiologia 527: 25–33, 2004.� 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 25

thirteen genera referred to the Garrini, accountingfor about 86.7% of the total number of the sub-tribe (pers. obs.). Among them, seven are endemicto China, i.e. Sinocrossocheilus, Pseudogyrinochei-lus, Discocheilus, Ptychidio, Rectoris, Parasinilabeoand Pseudocrossocheilus. Their species are mainlydistributed in the upper and middle Chang Jiang(Yangtze River) and Zhu Jiang (Pearl River)drainage, with one species (Parasinilabeo macula-tus) having an extended distribution in the lowerChang Jiang drainage (Zhang et al., 2000). Eachof these genera consists of no more than threedescribed species. So, it seems likely that thegeographic unit composed of the upper and middleChang Jiang and Zhu Jiang drainages is a generic-

level diversity center of the Garrini or Labeoninae.During the latest twenty-five years, three newgenera have been described in this unit, i.e.Sinocrossocheilus Wu 1977, Discolabeo Chen &Lan 1992 (now Discocheilus Zhang 1997) andPseudocrossocheilus Zhang & Chen 1997 (note:Despite Pararectoris was recently establishedby Su et al. (2001) as a new genus to replace thename Parasinilabeo, Kottelat & Zhang (2003)revealed that it is an objective synonym of thelatter). We report here one more genus of theGarrini from this unit that has a distinct pattern oforomandibular morphology and is unidentifiablewith any of currently known genera of the Labe-oninae.

Table 1. Genera, numbers of species and their distributions of Chinese Labeoninae [CJ = Chang Jiang (Yangtze River drainage);

HI = Hainan Island; IJ = Yiluowadi Jiang (upper Irrawaddy drainage); LJ = Lancang Jiang (upper Mekong drainage); MJ = Min

Jiang; NJ = Nu Jiang (upper Salween drainage); PR = Zhu Jiang (Pearl River); RR = Yuan Jiang (Red River); YJ = Yaluzangbu

Jiang (Brahmaputra River drainage)]

Genera Numbers of

speciesDistribution

YJ IJ NJ LJ RR MJ HI PR CJ

Labeonini

Labeonina

Cirrhinus 1 + + + + +

Henicorhynchus 1 +

Labeo 1 + + +

Labiobarbus 1 +

Osteochilus 1 + + + +

Banganina

Lobocheilos 1 +

Bangana 13 + + + + + + +

? Qianlabeo 1 +

Garrini

Ptychidio 3 +

Crossocheilus 2 +

Epalzeorhynchos 1 +

Pseudocrossocheilus 2 +

Rectoris 3 + + +

Parasinilabeo 4 + +

Pseudogyrinocheilus 1 + +

Semilabeo 2 + +

Sinocrossocheilus 2 + +

Garra 9 + + + + + + + + +

Discocheilus 2 +

Placocheilus 2 + +

Discogobio 9 + + +

26

Materials and methods

Measurements were taken point to point with dialcalipers to the nearest 0.1 mm. Measurements andcounts were made on the left side of specimens.Counts and measurements follow those of Kott-elat (2001) with the addition of the followingmeasurements: predorsal, prepectoral, prepelvicand preanal length. These lengths are those mea-sured from the snout tip to the anterior base ofeach respective fin. Subunits of the head are givenas percentages of the head length. Head lengthitself and measurements of body parts are given asproportions of the standard length.

There are variations of the oromandibularstructures in the Labeoninae, which form the basisfor identification of most of its included genera. Theoromandibular structures herein defined were re-ferred to as ‘lips and associated structures’ byRobert (1982), ‘oromandibular elements’ by Reid(1985), and ‘oro-labial structures’ by Siebert (1998).The terminology of the oromandibular structuresand their definitions follow Reid (1985) and Siebert(1998). Major oromandibular structures herein dealtwith are: rostral fold (or rostral cap), upper andlower lips (or upper and lower labial folds), upperand lower jaws, and barbels (rostral and maxillary).

Toponymy employed for the distribution datain the present paper follows local Chinese usage.The Chinese portions of five Asian rivers, theBrahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong andRed River, are known locally as the YaluzangbuJiang, Yiluowadi Jiang, Nu Jiang, Lancang Jiangand Yuan Jiang, respectively. The Yangtze andPearl River are the English names for the ChangJiang and Zhu Jiang in Chinese, respectively.

The type specimens are stored in the collectionof the Freshwater Fish Museum of the Institute ofHydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences(IHB). Abbreviations utilized herein are: SL,standard length and HL, head length.

Qianlabeo, new genus

Type species

Qianlabeo striatus, new species

Etymology

The generic name is made from a combination ofthe Chinese word Qian, a short appellation of

Guizhou Province where the type species wascollected, and the Latin word Labeo, a genericname and also commonly utilized suffix for theLabeoninae genera. Gender: masculine.

Diagnosis

Qianlabeo can be distinguished from all otherLabeoninae genera in having an upper lip onlypresent in and entirely adnate to the side of theupper jaw, not covered by the pendulous rostralfold; the median portion of the upper jaw lackingan upper lip but bearing a thin, flexible and cor-nified cutting edge that is fully covered by thependulous rostral fold; a postlabial groove pro-longed, extended anteromedially close to the an-teromost end of the midline of the lower lip butnot to meet with its counterpart, dividing the lowerlip into two lateral fleshy lobes and one centralplate. It is also differentiated from all except forParasinilabeo and Sinocrossocheilus in having se-ven branched dorsal-fin rays, and from all exceptfor Sinocrossocheilus and Pseudocrossocheilus inhaving a pair of well-developed maxillary barbels.Qianlabeo further differs from Parasinilabeo, Sin-ocrossocheilus and Pseusdocrossocheilus in havinga slightly crenulated and papillose rostral fold anda slightly papillose lower lip; from Parasinilabeo inhaving no vertical shallower grooves on the distalmargin of the rostral fold; from Sinocrossocheilusin having no suctorial lower lip, a rostral foldconnected with the lower lip around the corner ofthe mouth and three rows of pharyngeal teeth;from Pseusdocrossocheilus in the presence ofthe lateral portion of the upper jaw fully enclosedby the upper lip that is connected with the lowerlip.

Qianlabeo striatus sp. nov

HolotypeIHB 800858, 69.3 mm SL, a stream tributarydraining to the Beipan Jiang of the upper Zhu Ji-ang (Pearl River drainage) in Matou, collected byKe-Qiang Lu, about 10 km southwest of AnshunCounty, Guizhou Province, China, Dec. 6, 1980.

Paratypes

IHB 800933, 800879, 8000892, 800917, 4 speci-mens, 57.2–68.1 mm SL, same data as the holotype.

27

Etymology

The specific name from the Latin striatus, meaninga longitudinal dark stripe along the side of thebody.

Diagnosis

A species of Qianlabeo with a longitudinal darkstripe along the side of body (Table 2).

Description

General body appearance and morphology oforomandibular structures are illustrated inFigures 1C, 2, respectively. Count and measure-ment data of five specimens 57.2–69.3 mm SL aregiven in Table 3.

A small-sized fish attaining a length of up to70 mm, with an elongate and compressed body;dorsal profile somewhat concave and ventral pro-file round. Head moderately large; interorbitalspace slightly concave. Caudal peduncle slenderwith lowest depth close to base of caudal fin. Snoutblunt, with a shallow sublachrymal grooveextending obliquely as far as to corner of mouth;no tubercles on its tip. Eye moderately large,dorsolaterally situated in anterior half of head.Mouth inferior, wide and arched. Two pairs ofbarbels; rostral pairs at anterior end of sublach-rymal groove and maxillary pairs well-developedat corner of mouth, longer than eye diameter butone and half as long as rostral pairs. Pharyngealteeth triserial, 5,4,2–2,4,5, with obliquely truncateand compressed distal tips. Air bladder bipartite,anterior chamber round and posterior chamberoblong, twice as long as anterior chamber. Gillrakers small and dense.

Lateral line complete, with 38(1), 39(2), or40(2) perforated scales. Predorsal midline scalesirregularly arranged, 14(2), 15(2), or 16(1) scalescounted along row adjacent to midline area. Scalerows above lateral line 5½ (1) or 6(5), below 4(5).Circumpeduncular scales 12(5). Chest and bellyscaled; scales slightly smaller among mid-ventralregion. Axillary scale present at base of pelvic fin.Two scales between anus and anal-fin origin.

Dorsal fin with a slightly truncate distal mar-gin; last simple ray soft, equal to or somewhatlonger than HL and last branched ray split to base.Dorsal-fin origin roughly at midpoint of body,opposite to or immediately in advance of pelvic-finorigin. Pectoral fin shorter than HL, extending

slightly beyond midway to pelvic-fin insertion andas far as seventh or eighth scale anterior to pelvic-fin insertion. Pelvic fin round, extending slightlybeyond halfway to anal-fin origin and as far asfourth scale in advance of anus, inserted close toanal-fin origin than to pectoral-fin origin. Anal finwith a somewhat truncate distal margin, insertedin midway between pelvic-fin insertion and caudal-fin base, reaching slightly beyond halfway to cau-dal-fin base. Caudal fin deeply forked, upper andlower lobes equal in length and shape, each with apointed tip. Dorsal-fin rays iii + 7(5); anal-finrays iii + 5(5); pectoral-fin rays i + 12(3) ori + 13(2); pelvic-fin rays i + 8(5).

Color pattern in formalin

In formalin-preserved specimen, body gray andyellowish dorsally and laterally, slightly pale ven-trally. A longitudinal dark stripe originatingnearly at upper extremity of gill opening and ter-minating medially at caudal-fin base, anteriorlyextending along first longitudinal scale row abovelateral line and posteriorly along lateral line, pos-teriorly slightly wider and more prominent. Allother fins gray.

Distribution

Qianlabeo striatus is only known from a streamtributary to the Beipan Jiang of the upper ZhuJiang (Pearl River) drainage in Matou, about10 km southwest of Anshun County, GuizhouProvince, China (Fig. 3).

Discussion

As aforementioned, based on the morphology oforomandibular structures, the Labeoninae can begrouped into two tribes: Labeonini and Garrini.The delimitation of the two tribes is in agreementwith that of two subtribes defined by Rainboth(1996). Labeonini includes those genera having anupper lip separated from the rostral fold by a deeppreoral groove, with its base more or less coveredby a rostral fold. This tribe can be subdivided intotwo subtribes, here termed as Labeonina andBanganina. Both Labeo and Osteocheilus, asillustrated by Reid (1985, p. 37, Fig. 7a and b),have an upper lip separated from the upper jaw bya deep preoral groove and greatly thickened,

28

Table

2.Comparisonofdiagnostic

charactersamongQianlabeo.gen.novandother

relatedgenera

Labeo

Bangana

Qianlabeo

gen.nov

Pseudocrossocheilus

Sinocrossocheilus

Parasinilabeo

Rostralfold

Smooth

Smooth

Slightlycrenuated;

slightlypapillose

Greatlycrenulated;

heavilypapillose

Greatlycrenulated;

heavilypapillose

Notcrenulated,distally

withsomevertical

grooves;heavily

papillose

Upper

lip

Separatedfrom

upper

jaw

byagroove

Fullyadnate

to

upper

jaw

Only

presentin

and

fullyadnate

toside

ofupper

jaw

Absent

Absent

Absent

Lower

lip

Non-suctorial;heavily

papillose

Non-suctorial;heavily

papillose

Non-suctorial;slightly

papillose,

Non-suctorial;

heavilypapillose

Suctorial;heavily

papillose

Non-suctorial;heavily

papillose

Rostralfold

and

lower

lip

Disconnected

Disconnected

Connected

Connected

Disconnected

Connected

Cornified

edgeon

upper

jaw

Present

Absent

Presentmedially

Presententirely

Presententirely

Presententirely

Upper

jaw

and

lower

lip

Disconnected

Connected

Connected

Connected

Disconnected

Disconnected

Postlabialgroove

Insideoflower

jaw

Insideoflower

jaw

orprolonged

tomeet

withitscounterpart

Prolonged,notmeet

withitscounterpart

atmidline

Insideoflower

jaw

Absent

Insideoflower

jaw

Pharyngealtoohrows

33

33

23

Maxillary

barbels

Well-developed,

minute

orabsent

Minute

orpresent

Well-developed

Well-developed

Well-developed

Minute

orabsent

Branched

dorsal-finrays

9–15

10–12

78

77

29

superficially with variable-sized papilla, elongatefolds or plicae, a state as well shared with Cirrhi-nus, Henicorhynchus and Labiobarbus; these fivegenera can be referred to Labeonina. Banganinaincludes three genera, viz. Bangana, LobocheilosSchismatorhynchos, in which the upper jaw is fullyenclosed by the upper lip whose median portion orbase is covered by a thick, smooth and pendulousrostral fold (Siebert, 1998, p. 99, Fig. 1). Garriniincludes such genera as Crossocheilus, Discogobio,Discocheilus, Pseudocrossocheilus, Placocheilus,Garra, Epalzeorhynchos, Parasinilabeo, Ptychidio,Semilabeo, Pseudogyrinocheilus, Sinocrossocheilusand Rectoris. These genera have an upper lip re-placed by the pendulous rostral fold that com-

pletely covers the upper jaw and is separated fromit by a deep preoral groove. Qianlabeo is identifi-able with none of these two tribes and it possessesa distinct oromandibular morphology comparedto its counterpart of all currently known genera ofthe Labeoninae.

Qianlabeo (Fig. 1C) has a well-developed,slightly crenulated and pendulous rostral foldcovering the median portion of the upper jaw, astate similar to that of some Labeonini genera,e.g., Bangana (Fig. 1B) and Labeo (Fig. 1A). Butthe upper lip of Qianlabeo is merely present in andentirely adnate to the side of the upper jaw, notcovered by the pendulous rostral fold; meanwhilethe median portion of the upper jaw lacks theupper lip but bears a thin, flexible and cornifiedcutting edge, which is completely covered by apendulous rostral fold. These oromandibular spe-cializations in Qianlabeo probably derive from thegeneral pattern exemplified by the Banganinagenera, in which the upper lip is entirely adnate tothe overall upper jaw, with its median portion orbase covered by a thick, smooth, pendulous rostralfold. The more derived pattern is exhibited by theGarrini genera whose upper lip is greatly regressedor absent so that the upper jaw uniformly bears a

Figure 1. Ventral view of the oromandibular structures in Qianlabeo and other related genera. (A) Labeo yunnanensis, IHB 63IV1046,

101.6 mm SL. (B) Bangana rendhali, IHB 42V1163, 155.1 mm SL. (C) Qianlabeo striatus, IHB 800858, holotype, 69.3 mm SL. (D)

Parasinilabeo assimilis, IHB 589499, 76.4 mm SL. (E) Sinocrossocheilus guizhouenisi, IHB 6650411, 71.8 mm SL. (F) Pseudocrossoc-

heilus liuchengensis, IHB 85051653, 67.4 mm SL. CP ¼ central plate of lower lip; LB ¼ lateral lobe of lower lip; LJ ¼ lower jaw;

LL ¼ lower lip; MB ¼ maxillary barbel; PG ¼ postlabial groove; OG ¼ preoral groove; RB ¼ rostral barbel; RF ¼ rostral fold;

SG ¼ sublachrymal groove; VG ¼ vertical groove on distal margin of rostral fold; UJ ¼ upper jaw; UL ¼ upper lip.

Figure 2. Lateral view of Qianlabeo striatus, IHB 800858,

holotype, 63.9 mm SL.

30

cornified sheath cutting edge that is entirely cov-ered by a heavily papillose and pendulous rostralfold but segregated from it by a deep preoral

groove. In regard to oromandibular structures, itseems more likely that Qianlabeo represents anintermediate form between Labeonini and Garrini,

Table 3. Morphometric data for Qianlabeo striatus gen. et sp. nov

Gender 800858 800892 800933 800917 800879

Female Female Male Female Male

SL (mm) 69.3 61.5 58.1 68.1 57.2

Percentages of SL

Body depth 24.3 24.4 24.1 24.4 24.0

Head length 21.4 24.1 21.0 21.2 22.2

Head depth 14.3 16.4 15.7 14.4 15.1

Head width 14.8 13.8 13.3 12.3 13.5

Length of caudal peduncle 18.8 16.3 17.2 17.6 17.4

Depth of caudal peduncle 11.4 11.4 12.1 11.8 11.5

Predorsal length 51.4 52.4 48.8 50.3 50.1

Prepectoral length 22.1 22.6 22.2 24.1 23.0

Prepelvic length 50.0 54.0 53.4 52.8 52.2

Preanal length 74.3 75.1 75.9 76.5 74.6

Percentages of HL

Snout length 33.5 33.8 35.1 35.4 34.6

Eye diameter 26.0 24.3 26.7 24.4 25.8

Interorbital width 53.1 46.6 48.3 54.2 49.3

Figure 3. Map showing the distribution of Qianlabeo striatus in China.

31

and that it is more allied to Banganina than toGarrini and Labeonina.

The Labeonina genera have a distinct oroman-dibular pattern from that displayed by Qianlabeoand Garrini alike. They have an upper lip apartfrom the upper jaw by a deep preoral groove andgreatly thickened, superficially with variable-sizedpapilla, elongate folds or plicae. Besides, thesegenera have a non-papillose rostral fold instead of aslightly papillose one in Banganina and Qianlabeoor a heavily papillose one in Garrini, suggestive ofthat they possibly reside within the primitiveassemblage of the Labeoninae. This apparentlydoes not corroborate Siebert’s (1998) speculationthat Schismatorhynchos, along with Tylognathus(= Bangana) and Lobocheilos, lies inside theprimitive assemblage of the tribe Labeonini (hereinLabeoninae). A phylogenetic analysis of all Labe-oninae genera based on molecular and /or mor-phological characters is necessary to testify theseproposed relationships.

Qianlabeo possesses a prolonged postlabialgroove, which is extended anteromedially close tothe anteromost point of the midline of the lowerlip but not to meet with its counterpart, thereforedividing the lower lip into two lateral flesh lobesand one central plate. This structure is not sharedwith all other relevant Labeoninae genera. Lobo-chilos and Labeo have a deep postlabial groovenarrowly interrupted at isthmus (Rainboth, 1996).While some species of Bangana have an uninter-rupted postlabial groove extended anteromediallyto meet in the midline to form a continuous andtransverse groove (Kottelat, 1998), others have apostlabial groove broadly interrupted or merelyrestricted in the side of the lower jaw, partiallyseparating the lower lip from the mental region(Rainboth, 1996; Kottelat, 1998; Kullander et al.,1999). A broadly interrupted postlabial groove isalso shared with such genera as Parasinilabeo,Cirrhinus, Rectoris, Labiobarbus, Osteocheilus andPseudocrossocheilus (Wu et al., 1977; Talwar &Jhingran, 1991; Rainboth, 1996; Zhang & Chen,1997).

Qianlabeo, along with two endemic Chinesegenera, viz. Parasinilabeo and Sinocrossocheilus,has seven branched dorsal-fin rays, a characteratypical for most of the Garrini genera, whichnormally have eight or more branched dorsal-finrays. Parasinilabeo (Fig. 1D) differs from Qianla-

beo in having a non-crenulated (versus slightlycrenulated), heavily (versus slightly) papilloserostral fold distally with several vertical shallowgrooves (versus without), the absence of anupper lip (versus present, merely restricted tothe side of upper jaw), a heavily (versusslightly) papillose lower lip and a pair of minute(versus well-developed) maxillary barbels. Sino-crossocheilus (Fig. 1E) is distinct from Qianlabeoin having a suctorial lower lip (versus absent), two(versus three) rows of pharyngeal teeth, a heavily(versus slightly) papillose and heavily (versusslightly) crenulated rostral fold disconnected(versus connected) with the lower lip around thecorner of the mouth, an upper lip absent (versuspresent, solely confined to the side of the upperjaw) and an upper jaw laterally disconnected withthe lower lip (versus the lateral portion of theupper jaw is entirely enclosed by the upper lipwhich is laterally connected with the lower lip).

Besides Sinocrossocheilus, Pseudocrossocheilusshares with Qianlabeo the presence of a pair ofwell-developed maxillary barbels. To date,Pseudocrossocheilus is treated as valid and com-prises two species, viz. P. bamaensis and P. li-uchengensis respectively from the Hongshui Heand Liu Jiang of the Zhu Jiang (Pearl Riverdrainage) (Zhang et al., 2000). However, bothwere originally described by Fang (1981) and Li-ang (1987) as Crossocheilus. Zhang & Chen(1997), in their review of the Chinese species ofCrossocheilus, noted that the oromandibularmorphology of the two species is distinct fromthat of C. oblongus from Thailand and Malaysia,and also C. reticulatus, a species currently recog-nized by Rainboth (1996) as valid from theLancang Jiang (upper Mekong drainage) in Chi-na. Accordingly, they proposed Pseudocrossoc-heilus as a new genus for these two species. Thisgenus is distinct from Crossocheilus in havingan upper lip absent (versus present, separatedfrom the upper jaw), an upper jaw laterally con-nected with the lower lip (versus disconnected); arostral fold connected (versus disconnected) withthe lower lip around the corner of the mouthand a pair of well-developed (versus minute)maxillary barbels (Zhang & Chen, 1997, p. 323,Figs 1–4). Pseusdocrossocheilus (Fig. 1F) differsfrom Qianlabeo in having a greatly (versusslightly) crenulated rostral fold; an upper jaw

32

laterally connected with the lower lip around thecorner of the mouth (versus lateral portion ofupper jaw completely enclosed by the upperlip that is connected with the lower lip); theabsence of upper lip (versus present, only re-stricted to the side of the upper jaw); a heavily(versus slightly) papillose lower lip; eight (versusseven) branched dorsal-fin rays. Characters uti-lized to distinguish Qianlabeo from other relatedgenera are given in Table 2.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Fang Fang, Swedish Museumof Natural history, Stockholm (NRM) for hercritical comments and valuable suggestions on ourmanuscript; P.Q. Yue and S.P. He (IHB) formaking some good suggestions on our manuscript;R. Wang, at the Archives of Mapping Data, Lands& Resources Department, Guizhou Province,China, for providing a local atlas; M.J. Cai (IHB)for his assistance with drawing of some illustra-tions. The project is supported by the ChineseNational Natural Sciences Fund No. 39870124and partially the Chinese National Natural Sci-ences Fund No. 49832010.

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